No one ever said Princeton-educated Jason Garrett isn’t smart, which is why what the Cowboys head coach might be planning to fill a vacancy on his staff makes so much sense.

Garrett is looking at recently-fired Giants coach Mike Pope, according to ESPNDallas.com. The Cowboys need a new tight end coach, with Wes Phillips having gone over to coach that position for the Redskins. Pope is widely considered to be one of, if not the best, coach of tight ends in the league, something Garrett was able to witness first-hand when he was a backup quarterback with the Giants from 2000 to 2003.

Pope was part of a post-season purging of the offensive staff, with coordinator Kevin Gilbride retiring before he would have been dismissed and longtime running backs coach Jerald Ingram also let go. Co-opener John Mara declared the offense “broken’’ after his Giants went 7-9 and sported the NFL’s 28th-ranked offense. So far, the only new hire is Ben McAdoo, previously the Packers’ quarterbacks coach, to replace Gilbride as offensive coordinator.

Pope has been coaching for 31 consecutive years, 23 coming with the Giants, working under head coaches Bill Parcells, Jim Fassel and Tom Coughlin. He is the only coach to participate in every one of the Giants’ five Super Bowls and the only coach to have his name on four Lombardi Trophies. In addition to mentoring tight ends for the Giants, Pope also served in that capacity for the Bengals, Patriots and Redskins.